Ahsoka, Daughter of the Light (Book 5): Rescue

Chapter 17: Desert Stroll

AHSOKA TANO-BONTERI

Ahsoka and Lux walked through the streets of the desert town on Mirial.

It was cold, which was quite odd for such a desert world. Normally worlds like these were hot and scorching, but that sure wasn't the case here.

Ahsoka was wearing a cloak, so as to conceal the fact she was carrying a child. Such a mission was risky, as she was quite delicate now. However, the chances of an encounter with the Imperials were low.

This settlement was relatively small, around a half the size of a spaceport like Mos Eisley. Yet still, the place was still bustling with activity. It was going to be hard to find her.

There were several people, mainly Mirialans, walking about the streets. They were mostly just getting food at market stands.

But they weren't the only ones in the streets.

New Imperial Stormtroopers were patrolling the area, dressed head to toe in white armor, not too different from that of the clones that came before them.

Then, suddenly, she picked up a disturbance in the force. It felt like a faint whistle in the wind, pointing them to somewhere.

"Can you sense her, too?" Lux asked, "Do you know where she is?"

"I think I sense something," she replied. "Down that way."

She pointed down an alley, with a sign that said "RESTRICTED AREA."

"You're not serious," Lux said.

"I'm serious," Ahsoka replied. "You can sense it too, right?"

Lux rolled his eyes.

They approached the alleyway, looked to see if anyone was watching, then went into it.

They ran down the alleyway, towards where she thought she had sensed her. They passed a few doors to the buildings next to them as well as some machinery, all of which were locked.

Eventually, they came to a dead end.

"Well," Lux said, "no luck here."

"Maybe we should go back and-"

"Halt!"

The two turned around to see two stormtroopers behind them.

"What are you doing here?" one of them asked. "This is a restricted are!"

"Uh..." Ahsoka said, trying to come up with something to say.

Lux's hand reached down to the lightsaber hidden under his robe, but Ahsoka grabbed his hand.

"We, uh... we didn't know this was off-limits," Ahsoka said.

"Really?" asked the other stormtrooper. "That's your excuse?"

"No," she said, "But this is!"

She charged at the Stromtroopers, clearly ready to take them on with her bare hands.

She kicked at one, who lept back. They started shooting at her.

She tried to punch the other one, but he grabbed her wrist and tried to throw her aside. She stood her ground, however.

It was quite clear that her pregnancy was weakening her. If she hadn't been pregnant, both of the troopers would have likely been dead.

Lux rushed in to the fight too, to see if he could help Ahsoka. He caught a trooper off guard by punching him in the back.

The other stormtrooper turned to face him and shot at him a few times, but he slid under the blasts, came back up, and kicked his legs, staggering the trooper for a moment.

Meanwhile, Ahsoka grabbed the arm of the other trooper and threw him to the side, but he quickly regained balance and kicked Ahsoka in the leg.

"Stop this!"

All four of them looked up to see a woman in a black cloak on the roof above them.

She jumped down from the roof.

"I'll handle this for you, said the woman, clearly directing it at Ahsoka and Lux.

Quickly, the figure ran and jumped at one of the troopers and kicked him in the head, knocking him out.

The other trooper started blasting at the woman, but it was too late. The figure grabbed his blaster and ripped it out of his hands. Then, they grabbed the trooper by his arm and tossed him into the wall.

Ahsoka and Lux's eyes were widened.

"I expected more from you, Padawan Tano," said the woman.

She knew that voice. It was exactly who they were looking for.

"Wha- Who are you!?" Lux asked.

The figure took off their mask.

"Jedi master Luminara Unduli," she said. "I take it that without a doubt you're here for me."

Author's Note:

Woohoo! Double-whammy! I already had a large portion of this chapter pre-written, as a chunk of it was originally intended to be a part of Ahsoka's vision about Luminara, but that got scrapped, but I kept this because I still wanted this to be their actual meeting. And since I've been uploading chapters at the rate Nevada counted their votes, I was like, "screw it, I'll keep this here and upload two chapters simultaneously." So there's that, I guess.

Also, I promise I'll *try* to speed up my writing here, because there's so much I have planned, and at this rate I'll never be able to write it all. But still, schoolwork (and maybe procrastination, admittedly) is still a problem. So expect *maybe* faster chapter uploads, but nowhere near as much as back in the summer when I was cranking out 1-2 chapters per day.

Anyways, thanks for reading, I'll see you all in the next chapter.